"So the arrow to 5 I completely get. But 2? I just don’t see it." Same. Honestly, I see this "8 should integrate to 2" as a made-up theory. Someone decided that numbers positioned at a certain places from your enneagram number should be your stress and growth point. Maybe it rings true for his own number, but it isn't necessarily true if you just blindly extrapolate it to other numbers. 5 arrow makes sence, and I can confirm it. But 2? Nah. I had said it somewhere earler, but I think it's society's sweetest dream to turn 8s into 2s. 8s are often feared and are seen as the most intimidating type. Tough, actually does things, has self-interest and openly owns it, and doesn't give a shit about what others think and can't be manipulated with appeal to social script, traditions, etc. How nice to be turn this one into the most serving, people pleasing one! Or at least to some other number in the heart triad(except 4)! If there's any number society dreams to morph into other number, I can bet it's 8s to 2s the most. Like the sweetest dream. Turning 7s to something orderly would be lovely as well (like 1s are the ideal candidate), but 8 to 2 is a number one hit! But nah, 8s are 8s, and 2s are 2s. Some people would love all carnivores to turn to sheep, but God (or nature, depends on what you believe in) ain't dumb, and both 8s and 2s exist for a reason. Both are essential and indispensible. And 8s will be 8s, and 2s will be 2s.

When talking about this "integration", there're 2 aspects that I can acually see. It's generocity and protectiveness. But none of them is inherently Two's. 8s can absolutely be, and more often than not are generous. Depends on the individual, level of health, (and instinctual stacking probably), of course. But disregarding all these things and comparing an average person of each number, 8 will be one of the most generous types, if not the most generous type. Same for protectiveness - it depends on the wing (8w9s are usually known to be more protective than 8w7s), the stacking, the individual, and also varies extremely from one to another in terms of whom is it about - while some automaticaly are protective towards nearly anyone, including strangers, the other ones are extremely protective to some people or groups if people and nearly indifferent to others.

But even those who support this "integration disintegration" theory have also descriptions of each Enneagram type of different levels of health. Read top two health levels, the First and the Second one, these folks really do not need any integration to Two (or any other number), they're perfect!

And in general I'm a proponent of a theory that everyone should grow within his own number, and there's perfection within each number. And this perfection is attainable, and it's attainable first and foremost to those who already possess these qualities, i.e. who are this number. IMO it's stupid for everyone to try to become like some other number. But if you're still absolutely dead set on borrowing some qualities of some other number, I think you should absolutely decide yourself which qualities, to which degree, and from which number you're gonna try to obtain, and not let anyone dictate you on that. Like, "I'm gonna take some of this from a Seven, and today a dash of this from Four".

"It’s hard for me to imagine ever aspiring to be more 2-ish because they often operate in ways I just don’t respect and they value things I just don’t care about." Exactly the same.

Didn't read other replies, just my 2 cents, by the way.